Books! How do you read and what do you read?

moviequeen1 said:
Yesterday I finished reading' The Dig' by John Preston
I had never heard of the Sutton Hoo Dig,I enjoyed the book
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The Dig was made into a movie and I believe is on Netflix. I enjoyed the movie.
moviequeen1 said:
This afternoon I finished 'The Last Thing he Told Me' by Laura Dave,it was ok,in my opinion doesn't deserve all the rave reviews,I don't like when a story goes back& forth from the past to the present, at times I get confused where the story is headed
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This was also made into a movie but I’m not sure where you can see it. Maybe Apple TV?
 

moviequeen1 said:
This afternoon I finished 'The Last Thing he Told Me' by Laura Dave,it was ok,in my opinion doesn't deserve all the rave reviews,I don't like when a story goes back& forth from the past to the present, at times I get confused where the story is headed
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Sad to say, this has become an increasingly popular fiction template over the past few years. I find the style tedious and get more than a little annoyed about having to reorient myself to plotlines and timelines with the opening of each new chapter.

Thanks for the head's-up with 'The Last Thing He Told Me'. The thought of reading it has lost some of its appeal for me.
 

Mitch86 said:
Fiction can never beat real history. No author could even imagine the things occurring for real in the past. WW II is a sample. No fictional book ever predicted WW II.
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Very true @Mitch86 However, after being a history buff for many years I now prefer light reading that takes me away from reality for a few hours.

Also there is a saying worth remembering: History is written by the winners! Here is an instance of how a political system or local pride can also twist an event:

Do you remember the Battle of Waterloo (1815)? We read in our history books that General Gebhard Leberecht von Bluecher won it with the help of Wellington. When I started reading history books written in English speaking countries it was Wellington who won, with last minute assistance by the Prussians! :) I think the latter is the correct version but, as I said, beware! Just look at the revised view of what Paul Revere did that fateful day!
 
Old Salt said:
Very true @Mitch86 However, after being a history buff for many years I now prefer light reading that takes me away from reality for a few hours.

Also there is a saying worth remembering: History is written by the winners! Here is an instance of how a political system or local pride can also twist an event:

Do you remember the Battle of Waterloo (1815)? We read in our history books that General Gebhard Leberecht von Bluecher won it with the help of Wellington. When I started reading history books written in English speaking countries it was Wellington who won, with last minute assistance by the Prussians! :) I think the latter is the correct version but, as I said, beware! Just look at the revised view of what Paul Revere did that fateful day!
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Never heard of the Paul Revere revision?? Could you fill me in? Thanks.
 
DaveA said:
Never heard of the Paul Revere revision?? Could you fill me in? Thanks.
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I guess this is still disputed and I can't swear to the truth except that this came up some time ago, and I took it for the truth:

"We know that Paul Revere never arrived in Concord after being captured on the way there. It is also known that a third man in Revere’s party, Dr. Samuel Prescott, who joined Revere and Dawes outside of Lexington, did alarm the militia in Concord. This sometimes leads to an argument that Revere never “finished” his ride."

Here is a link I found:
https://socialstudiesforkids.com/fu...uth is that Paul,that the British were coming.
 
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I think I can remember how to read books but for so very long have not and not sure if I ever will again - rather a sad thought and maybe an indictment of our times?
 
I'm currently reading Wager, the account of an actual shipwreck and mutiny in the 17th century. Wager is the name of an actual ship, and it was researched by a writer who is pretty meticulous about being as factual as possible. He's the writer who wrote the Lost City of Z a story of actual exploration. Don't confuse the book, Lost City of Z, with the movie. I'm not sure how close Hollywood stuck to the facts.
 
Old Salt said:
I guess this is still disputed and I can't swear to the truth except that this came up some time ago, and I took it for the truth:

"We know that Paul Revere never arrived in Concord after being captured on the way there. It is also known that a third man in Revere’s party, Dr. Samuel Prescott, who joined Revere and Dawes outside of Lexington, did alarm the militia in Concord. This sometimes leads to an argument that Revere never “finished” his ride."

Here is a link I found:
https://socialstudiesforkids.com/funfacts/paulrevere.htm#:~:text=The truth is that Paul,that the British were coming.
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Thanks. And now I do recall the story. I was born and brought up about 55 miles from Boston and heard the "Midnight ride of Paul Revere" so many times it became ingrained as "fact".

I guess we can give he and Dawes credit for trying even if they had to rely on Prescott for the actual warning.
 
JustDave said:
I'm currently reading Wager, the account of an actual shipwreck and mutiny in the 17th century. Wager is the name of an actual ship, and it was researched by a writer who is pretty meticulous about being as factual as possible. He's the writer who wrote the Lost City of Z a story of actual exploration. Don't confuse the book, Lost City of Z, with the movie. I'm not sure how close Hollywood stuck to the facts.
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Hi Just Dave, the author is David Gramm, he wrote " Lost City of Z "Killers of the Flower Moon' which I both read. The latter has been made into a feature film,not sure when its being released Sue
 
Finished Africatown by Nick Tabor. About America's last slave ship (Clotilda) and the community it created. It connects the history of slavery, industrial pollution, labor exploitation, and movements for environmental & political justice.
 
The book I started 3 days ago is The Searcher' by Tana French,story about a retired cop from Chicago, Cal Hooper who bought a 'fixer upper' house he saw on internet, moves to a small Irish village
As he is getting to know his neighbors& area, a local kid asks him to find out what happen to his brother who has been missing for couple of months. I'm really enjoying this book
I'm always looking for new authors,French is very good writer,. Sometimes if I like a book by certain author I will buy their earlier books. This is what I did yesterday bought on Amazon her 1st 2 books, should get them sometime today Sue
 
moviequeen1 said:
The book I started 3 days ago is The Searcher' by Tana French,story about a retired cop from Chicago, Cal Hooper who bought a 'fixer upper' house he saw on internet, moves to a small Irish village
As he is getting to know his neighbors& area, a local kid asks him to find out what happen to his brother who has been missing for couple of months. I'm really enjoying this book
I'm always looking for new authors,French is very good writer,. Sometimes if I like a book by certain author I will buy their earlier books. This is what I did yesterday bought on Amazon her 1st 2 books, should get them sometime today Sue
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I finished'The Searcher' this afternoon, terrific,fast paced book I recommend it
 
SeniorBen said:
I finally made it to the end of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, although I admit that I did just skim through parts of it.

I don't get what the appeal is for that novel. Most of it's just filler.
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That’s how I felt about the Brothers Karamasov I finished it but I was like, “huh? What was that all about?”
 
CODE 6 by James Grippando.

This is a slow moving story about cyber spying.

Mentions that in German census one of questions asked were your grandparent Jewish.
The information went into the early fore runner of computers.

That sets the reader up to understanding the new electronic heist that is taking place in a large company.

Its a bit of a slow read which does make you think,, anything is possible in this world.
 
StarSong said:
Sad to say, this has become an increasingly popular fiction template over the past few years. I find the style tedious and get more than a little annoyed about having to reorient myself to plotlines and timelines with the opening of each new chapter.
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It's getting old! Right now I'm reading "Signal Fires," a very good book by Dani Shapiro but from time to time, I think wouldn't it have been nice if she had just told this fine story in a nice linear fashion.
moviequeen1 said:
he book I started 3 days ago is The Searcher' by Tana French,story about a retired cop from Chicago, Cal Hooper who bought a 'fixer upper' house he saw on internet, moves to a small Irish village
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I loved that one so much (the beagles!) Tana French can't pump them out fast enough for me.
While checking the book shelves for more of hers I discovered Nikki French -- also quite good!
 
Finished "The Devlin Diary" by Christi Phillips; goes back and forth between 1600's and modern times, Cambridge scholars, diaries written in codes, etc. Pretty good.

The really fascinating thing, to me, (in a kind of morbid way) was some of the medical 'ideas' (crazy) from the medieval times. Like the philosophers/MD's discussing if infusing sheep's blood into a human would help the person be more calm o.0 Some of you know how many hoops you have to jump through right now to administer blood products and make sure it's *exactly* right... I can't even imagine what kind of reaction this poor guy would have
 

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